​UK science panel backs three-parent IVF babies

A new review by British scientists has given the green light to creating babies from three people. They said the techniques used were not unsafe.

The Human Fertilization
and Embryology Authority (HFEA) said Tuesday that after examining a large
amount of data, it has concluded that nothing suggests at the
moment that the techniques used were “unsafe” and added
it could be “potentially useful for a specific and defined
group of patients.”

But it added that further experiments were needed. The
announcement follows two reviews in 2011 and 2013, which reached
similar conclusions.

The techniques used in three parent IVF babies are highly
controversial as they involve creating babies from three people -
two mothers and one father, which critics say could lead to the
phenomenon of “designer children.”

The procedure involves donor DNA being given by a second mother,
which is implanted into the defective egg of the first mother and
can prevent children suffering debilitating genetic conditions
such as muscular dystrophy, blindness and brain disorders.

The method is called mitochondrial replacement or transfer and is
still at the research stage in laboratories in the United States
and Britain.

Mitochondria are what produce the energy in every human cell and
about 1 in 6,000 babies are born with severe mitochondrial
disorders. Women with defective mitochondria also repeatedly
miscarry.

For now the science is illegal to be used on people in both the
UK and US, but last year the British government said it was
drawing up legislation that would allow treatment to go ahead if
clinical trials prove successful.

While in the US the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also
set up a committee of experts to see if safety concerns are
minimal enough to allow human trials to begin.

As part of the British consultation, scientists from the HFEA
examined two different mitochondrial replacement techniques,
Maternal Spindle Transfer (MST) and Pronuclear transfer (PNT).

“There has been a lot of new data that we looked at and we
worked very hard to address all the issues. First of all there is
still no evidence to suggest that either technique might be
unsafe. There is still insufficient evidence to recommend one
technique over the other… but we still do recommend that some
further experiments are needed to be done before introducing
either into clinical practice,” said Professor Robin
Lovell-Badge one of the authors of the report.

If the UK government does bring in rules allowing the practice,
then it will be up to the HFEA to decide if treatment can go
ahead on a case-by-case basis.

“Mitochondrial donation will give women who carry severe
mitochondrial disease the opportunity to have children without
passing on devastating genetic disorders. We will give careful
consideration to this report and announce our plans in the next
few months,” said a spokesman for the Department of Health.

Peter Broad, one of the members of the panel, which examined the
evidence, and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Kings
College London cautioned that while there is some risk, the
benefits of three-parent IVF were huge.

“The implementation of any new medical treatment is never
wholly without risk, and genetic alteration of disease is an
important step for society that should not be taken
lightly,” he told Reuters.

The UK government has indicated that as long as they are strictly
regulated, the treatments should be allowed to go ahead, while a
recent poll showed Britons were largely in favor of the idea.